The Pied Piper of Guadalupe
The Pied Piper of Guadalupe is a 1961 Looney Tunes short directed by Friz Freleng. Title The title is a pun on The Pied Piper of Hamlin. Plot Sylvester can't seem to catch the mice in his small Mexican town. As he paces outside a bookshop, he notices a copy of a Mexican Version of The Pied Piper of Hamelin with the same title of the cartoon and hatches an idea. He takes flute lessons from J.C. Melendez, then sets up a music stand and a jug outside a mousehole. The mice all laugh at him, but when he plays his flute, one of them gets a funny look on his face and dances toward the cat. When the mouse is close enough, Sylvester whacks it with his flute and drops it into the jug. He continues playing and a second mouse is similarly overcome by the music. When Armando Mouse begins dancing toward the cat, his friend grabs his tail to hold him back, but ends up being dragged outside and Sylvester gets the pair with one whack. This continues until Sylvester thinks he has caught every mouse, but Speedy Gonzales announces there is one more. He demands that Sylvester put his friends back or he'll take them back. Sylvester tells him to try it, and uncorks the jug, thinking that when Speedy goes in for a rescue he'll catch him too, but Speedy's too fast for the cat and manages to drag one of the mice to safety. Sylvester plays his flute again and Speedy dances towards him, but instead of a funny look on his face, he wears a big grin. When Sylvester tries to whack him, he whacks the cat first, then rescues another of his friends. Sylvester hides in a barrel with a dynamite stick, waiting to blow up Speedy when he passes. However, Speedy does not pass, he hops up on the barrel and starts it rolling. It rolls down a series of steps, then upends onto a sleeping bulldog. When the barrel explodes, the charred bulldog chases the singed cat through town. Speedy rescues two more mice, but then Sylvester chases him on a motorcycle. He inexplicably drives the motorcycle off a cliff and into a lake. Then he restarts the bike while underwater, drives it back up the cliff, and resumes chasing Speedy. Speedy tricks him into driving the wrong way down a one-way street and he crashes into a bus. Sylvester leaves the Cat Hospital on crutches, with many bandages and a cast on his leg. Speedy runs after him saying he forgot his flute, but he tells Speedy to keep it. When Speedy starts to play it, Sylvester's broken leg is overcome by the music and it dances after the mouse, causing him pain with every step. Instead of the pied piper leading the mice out of town as in the original story, the mouse leads the pied piper. Availability * VHS - Speedy Gonzales' Fast Funnies * VHS - Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Volume 13: Comic Cat-Tastrophies * DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4, Disc 3 * DVD - Gypsy * Blu-ray, DVD - Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3, Disc 2 (restored) Notes * This cartoon was used in Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales, but only showed a few small scenes such as Sylvester doing his Pied Piper routine trick to lure the mice out, Speedy coming to save the mice and then later used the ending scene in which Bugs did narration. A bit of new animation was used in the middle of the story so that it would lead up to another Speedy cartoon, "Mexican Boarders". * This was the first Looney Tunes/''Merrie Melodies'' short to be written by John W. Dunn who would go on to write many of the cartoons of both series afterwards until 1965. Music * "The Mexican Hat Dance" Gallery Pied Piper Still.JPG Category:Sylvester Cartoons Category:Cartoons directed by Friz Freleng Category:1961 Category:Speedy Gonzales Cartoons Category:Hollywood in Cartoons Category:Shorts Category:Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales Cartoons Category:Academy Award nominees Category:Cartoons directed by Hawley Pratt Category:Cartoons with music by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons animated by Bob Matz Category:Looney Tunes Shorts Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Tom O'Loughlin Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons produced by David H. DePatie Category:Cartoons written by John Dunn